The Ecclesia Anglicana Goes to War: Prayers, Propaganda, and Conquest during the Reign of Edward I of England, 1272-1307

Abstract

It is widely accepted by scholars that the Hundred Years' War, in general, and the reign of King Edward III of England (1327-1377), in particular, witnessed a crucial stage in the development of state sponsored propaganda efforts to mobilize the nation for war.' Edward III's government made particularly skillful use of the church to disseminate the justifications for the king's wars in France and against the Scots. The royal government also used church leaders on a regular and continuing basis to organize a spectrum of religious rites and ceremonies encompassing the largest possible sections of the English population, including the laity and clergy, to seek divine intervention on behalf of English troops serving in the field. These religious rites included prayers, penitential and thanksgiving processions, intercessory masses, vigils, almsgiving, and fasting.2 The administrative structure that made possible the dissemination of royal propaganda and the organization of this wide spectrum of religious observances was the hierarchical church itself.3 Edward III's government regularly issued writs to English bishops, especially the archbishops of Canterbury and York, abbots, as well as the heads of the Dominican and Franciscan orders in England,